Chapter 28 The Aftermath

The final match ended, and the audience's applause sounded somewhat mechanical. It was clearly not the heartfelt kind of joy, but rather a polite, perfunctory clapping.

For all of this, Zhou Zekai, the star player of Team Samsara, didn't seem to care. As soon as the match was over, he waved to the audience, said "Thank you," and quickly left the arena.

They had been vigorously promoting him since the opening show, wanting to make him the brightest star of the night, but in the end, he looked like he was performing during the garbage time after midnight on the Spring Festival Gala. Everyone in Samsara sighed. Although this All-Star Rookie Challenge would undoubtedly be the most exciting and successful ever, the fact that their player didn't leave a highlight in such a wonderful event only made them more depressed.

With the Rookie Challenge over, the main content of the first day of All-Star Weekend was basically finished. It was all one-on-one matches, and although each match didn't last very long, adding in the intermissions, speeches, and the opening show, it had already been going on for almost two hours.

After that, they arranged another holographic projection show, as well as some lottery activities. In previous years, many viewers would have left early during this garbage time. But this year, with the new holographic projection technology, many viewers hadn't had enough and stayed to continue watching with lingering interest.

This ending lasted for nearly half an hour before officially announcing the end of the first day of All-Star activities. During this half hour of garbage time, security personnel maintaining the exit order had already taken their positions. The lights in the stadium gradually brightened, and finally, they were fully illuminated. The audience stood up and began to leave the arena. Some enthusiastic fans were still looking around, always wanting to find an opportunity to make contact with their idol players in person.

But the organizers wouldn't be unprepared for something like this. The professional player seats had their own channel, separate from the general audience. When the lights came on, the audience looked towards the professional player seats, but they had already cleared out.

The crowd slowly shuffled out of the stadium, taking almost half an hour, and everyone was covered in sweat. Coming outside, they immediately felt much more comfortable, and under the lights, you could see the audience gasping for air and exhaling white vapor.

More of the local audience were clearly experienced in watching live matches. As soon as they came out, they immediately rushed to the roadside without stopping. Although some business-minded taxi drivers knew to come to this area to wait for business when it was almost time, the overall supply still couldn't meet the demand. The roadside was noisy, and everyone clearly wasn't being very helpful and friendly just because they were all Glory fans, fiercely competing for taxis.

These three weren't strangers to such scenes. Ye Xiu didn't need to be said, and as for Chen Guo and Tang Rou, the internet cafe was right across from Excellent Era's home stadium. When Excellent Era had home games, the scene at the end was the same. How could they not have seen it before? But experiencing it firsthand was a first for the three of them, and it took another half an hour to finally get a taxi.

Back at the hotel, the three were both tired and hungry. They had only dealt with dinner on the plane, and after arriving in City S, they went straight to the hotel and ran to watch the match without resting much. It had been a rush all the way, and they hadn't prepared any snacks while watching the match. While focusing on watching the match, focusing on queuing to leave, and focusing on waiting for a taxi, they hadn't felt it much, but as soon as they saw their destination, they immediately felt their stomachs sticking to their backs and rushed to the restaurant without hesitation.

After ordering some food, the three of them looked at the electronic screen in the restaurant playing a program.

Today, the e-sports industry is also booming, and the Glory Alliance is a leader in it. Plus, the Glory player base is very large, with a great mass foundation. This All-Star Weekend hosted by Glory is naturally a focal event in City S recently, and the electronic screen was showing some of the highlights of the first day of All-Star Weekend, the Rookie Challenge.

The opening show, one Rookie Challenge match after another.

The few of them had just seen these things live, and now watching a highlight reel on TV, it felt different again. Chen Guo remained excited, always urging the other two to come over whenever there was a highlight. The only place she was silent was the moment when Han Wenqing defeated Sun Xiang. This was supposed to be the climax of the night, but for Chen Guo, this climax was clearly not pleasant.

After the highlights were finished, the TV broadcast the press conference after the end of the first day's activities.

As the host, although Team Samsara was depressed, they couldn't directly say it. At the press conference, they also praised the success of the holographic technology and the excitement of the Rookie Challenge.

After that, some star players who were invited to attend mostly used official rhetoric, praising the event in a very supportive manner. However, the reporters weren't so easily dealt with. The super obvious new-old rivalry that broke out in this Rookie Challenge would naturally lead to a series of questions.

But the Alliance was clearly prepared for this, and the members sent to attend the press conference were all good at playing tai chi with the media. Faced with these sharp questions, they all chuckled, emphasizing the players' professional attitude, saying that the new-old rivalry was positive and progressive, and a manifestation of the Alliance's healthy development.

Clearly, it was impossible to dig up any interesting topics from these players who were just there to go through the motions. The reporters were waiting, because they knew that according to the regulations, some of the players who participated in the Rookie Challenge had to appear and be interviewed.

In the end, four of the new and old players who participated in the Rookie Challenge appeared at the press conference. On the rookie side were Dai Yanqi from the first match and the rookie from Samsara in the sixth match. As for the old players, Wang Jiexi and Zhou Zekai appeared.

The reporters took a look, and they were really cunning! The topic figures they had hoped to see didn't appear. What was there to ask Dai Yanqi and the two from Samsara? The only one with news value present was Wang Jiexi.

The reporters quickly gathered around, throwing a barrage of questions at Wang Jiexi, naturally focusing on the match where he lost to Gao Yingjie.

Wang Jiexi was also an old fox with many years of experience. Moreover, that match was entirely planned by him, and the current situation was entirely within his expectations. Attending the press conference was something he had actively requested, so how could he panic?

Facing the reporters' questions, Wang Jiexi answered each one in a calm and orderly manner.

Although they didn't get the kind of explosive remarks they had hoped for, Wang Jiexi's serious attitude in answering questions was still very useful to the reporters. They weren't having an easy time either, and had received many glares when asking sharp questions to big-name stars. At this time, they also asked Wang Jiexi similar questions. Even the question of whether he had intentionally conceded was accidentally asked by a reporter, but Wang Jiexi still patiently answered each one.

In comparison, Zhou Zekai and the other two were very neglected. Only some reporters who couldn't squeeze next to Wang Jiexi were asking them some questions.

Such a scene was very common in interviews, and even rookies didn't think much of it. In fact, for most people, frequently being interviewed by reporters wasn't a happy thing. They even preferred to be neglected in the post-match interviews.

For example, Zhou Zekai, currently the most popular player in Glory, seemed to be quite happy to be neglected like this.

However, compared to the other two rookies, Zhou Zekai would still attract more attention. Some questions, the opinions of the god, were always more attractive than the opinions of rookies. Most of those who couldn't squeeze next to Wang Jiexi ran to Zhou Zekai's side.

"You are currently a middle-generation player in your prime. Facing the flamboyance of the rookies in this Rookie Challenge, do you feel that it is a disrespect to the old players?" a reporter asked.

Silence… A silence that lasted for more than ten seconds. Zhou Zekai seemed to be thinking. After a long while, he raised his head and said seriously, "It's okay, right?"

Then, there was nothing else. After saying these three words, Zhou Zekai was seriously looking at the reporters, his meaning clearly saying that they could move on to the next question.

The reporters were speechless. They had of course known for a long time that interviewing Zhou Zekai was a very difficult task. This man, known as the number one handsome guy in Glory so far, was very impressive when he put on a show, but he was very taciturn when it came to communicating with people. Especially when facing the media, super long strings of questions sometimes only received answers like "Mm," "Oh," "Ah!" "It's okay!" Just like now, the sentence "No," couldn't be said to be him not answering the reporter's question, but... What was the point of writing such an answer?

"Hahahaha..." Chen Guo, who was watching TV, laughed and pointed at the screen, saying, "I like watching his interviews."

Tang Rou, who was seeing Zhou Zekai's interview for the first time, immediately noticed that he was different and asked in surprise, "Did he just answer with that sentence?"

"Yes," Ye Xiu nodded.

The reporters wouldn't give in so easily. It was rare that they didn't have to fight to interview Zhou Zekai this time, so they were determined to overcome this interview difficulty.

"Tang Hao defeated Lin Jingyan. Do you think he can be called the number one Brawler in the Alliance?" A very direct question.

Zhou Zekai thought for another ten seconds, then said, "Everyone is outstanding."

"Everyone? Who do you mean by everyone?"

"Mm…" Thinking, "Everyone, ah!"

"Everyone? Do you think your level is similar to Yu Nian's?" Yu Nian was the rookie who accompanied Zhou Zekai in the show today.

"Uh... He works very hard, ah!" Zhou Zekai said.

"Working hard doesn't mean that the level is good, right?" Someone asked.

"Just do your best," Zhou Zekai said after a long while.

The reporters were in tears, and Chen Guo had already been laughing so hard that she was hitting the table. Tang Rou also couldn't help but laugh and asked Ye Xiu, "Is he really like this, or is he playing with the reporters?"

"Believe me, he's really like this," Ye Xiu nodded.